I once arrived at BBC Television Centre to find that the laptop in my bag had a broken screen. Since then, I've been careful verging on paranoid everywhere I go and I've learnt a lot.
Specifically this: don't carry a laptop.
A few years ago I'd have said that to you very deadpan seriously but of course it would've been a gag. Today, not so much. I've got a day of meetings and I'm at a café having a mug of tea before the first one. (Also a late breakfast bacon sandwich which is reminding me of a friend's advice only last week: always bring a second shirt. Alas.)
The bag in front of me is a Knomo that I bought years ago for carrying my MacBook Pro. It was designed for that: the MacBook fits it incredibly snugly. But I haven't put the MacBook in there in years. Instead, that snug MacBook bag is a roomy iPad one. I have an iPad Air with a Belkin keyboard case and a sleeve that my wife Angela Gallagher designed and made for me. Alongside her sleeve, I keep a Mophie battery charger, a Mu travel plug – it's gorgeous, it folds down flat – plus one Lightning cable and one micro USB cable. Oh, and Apple earbud headphones.
That's it.
That's everything I need today and actually most days. The iPad is a wifi-only model but with my tariff with 3 UK I can tether it to my iPhone without limit. It's been on 4G for months as I was part of 3's 4G beta test and I regularly forget to switch the iPhone's wifi back on. But whether I tether or borrow firms' wifi on my travels, I have everything I need because I use iCloud, Evernote and Dropbox. I used to be able to remote control my office iMac via LogMeIn but that company wants me to pay a greater-than-worth-it-to-me subscription to keep using the service that I bought on the vowed guarantee that its one-off cost would be all I'd ever pay. The fact that they've changed this and, last time I looked, their website still makes the old claim, means I'm not a fan. I'll find an alternative but for the moment, I haven't looked, I've just stopped remote controlling my Macs.
One more thing. Like many bags, this Knomo is buckled to one side. The shoulder strap connects to two hard-wearing metal clasps that are stitched into one side of the bag. I always put the iPad Air into my case with the screen facing toward the side with the clasps. It'll be in its case, it'll be in Angela's sleeve, but that's the direction it faces. So that I always know which way around it is without opening the case. So that I can put that case down and know, can decide, that the delicate screen won't be on the side I just smashed down on there.
Usually I think productivity is about making the most of your time but occasionally it's just about not being bleedin' stupid and slapping your computer equipment around as you travel.